


This City Loves a Scrap

by PanBoleyn



Series: I'll Bet Against the House (I'll Even Double Down) [2]
Category: Suits (TV)
Genre: F/M, M/M, Multi, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Pre-Relationship, pre-Donna/Harvey/Mike
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-11-30
Updated: 2015-12-15
Packaged: 2018-02-27 12:08:01
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 11,763
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2692409
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PanBoleyn/pseuds/PanBoleyn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Mike Ross gatecrashed Harvey Specter's interviews, he bargained without the firm politics... and without the rotten luck of developing inconvenient affections. But he's here now, and there's nothing for it but to see things through.</p><p>Double Down, season 2.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. It's All Uphill From Here

**Author's Note:**

> So I've decided to do this latest installment as a snapshot series rather than a longfic for various reasons. First, for all that I do a lot of AU I actually find rewriting scenes to be very tedious after a while, and in any case unlike season one a lot of the main plots of 2a at least are not deeply affected by Mike's secret. (Aside from Mike/Rachel which if a factor at all will not be done as the show has, partly because they've done horribly and also it's not my endgame.) Also, I plan to introduce more POVs which is easier done in snapshot form, at least for me.
> 
> And also writing this way has gotten me out of writer's block. As did changing my ship endgame to OT3. If anyone feels like I pulled a bait and switch, well... My apologies, and you don't have to continue reading. If you choose to stay or are just joining in, I hope you like it. :)

Mike’s right in the end. They do get Clifford Danner out, though they have to get a little creative with it. Trevor’s glad enough to help, which is something of a surprise, but then he and Jenny are giving things another shot (which bothers Mike a lot less than he might have expected, for reasons he’s not sure he wants to touch) so he’s in a good mood.

Mississippi Burning and it was done, and the stunned joy in Clifford’s eyes is nice to see. But the sheer relief on Harvey’s face means a hell of a lot more. He and Donna clear out the boxes of old case files, in tacit agreement to get them out of Harvey’s office before he can start brooding again. Mike’s been through them all by now, even the ones Harvey looked through the first time, at his condo, and the other cases… Well. There were a few, but thankfully in those cases Cameron seems to have had his guilty or innocent radar working, because there’s really no reason to think these convictions shouldn’t have happened. All Cameron did was make them easier.

“So, you trust me now?” Mike asks Donna as they shred the last of the files. Donna glances up from the papers she was feeding into the machine, her expression confused.

“Come again?”

“When Louis stuck me with the fake drug test, I asked if there was a reason you didn’t trust me. You said there wasn’t, but you never denied not trusting me,” he explains with a lopsided grin. “You change your mind yet?”

“Oh, that,” Donna says, straightening up and putting a hand on her hip. She makes a show of looking Mike over, tapping her chin with a finger. “Hmm…” And then she picks up a handful of papers and tosses them in his face. “Idiot. Of course I do. Though I hope you know this means we’re keeping you.”

“We?” That’s Harvey, and they both turn to look at him.

“Well, we have been married for seven years, remember? What’s yours is mine,” Donna says brightly, and Mike wonders if she’s teasing for fun or to distract Harvey from the files. If the latter, it doesn’t seem to be working, so he jumps into the discussion.

“Do I owe you guys an anniversary card? Also, I’m pretty sure I don’t actually belong to anyone.” Harvey snorts.

“Keep telling yourself that, pup. Now, why are you two getting rid of these? I wanted -”

“Don’t care,” Donna says. “Wonder Boy here went through them twice, Harvey, you’re in the clear. And there’s nothing you can do about the other cases, you don’t have access to them. You boys did good with Clifford. It’s time to let it go, all right?”

Mike shreds the last pieces of paper. “And anyway, there’s nothing to go through now,” he adds quietly, and Harvey glares at them both, but then his shoulders slump. He’s tired, they all are, but Harvey most of all. Which is why Donna and Mike did this, really. They knew that, and they knew looking through the files again wouldn’t do anyone any good.

There’s a moment of silence, before Harvey picks up one of the empty boxes. “We should stack these up.”

And after that, it goes back to normal, more or less. Mike watches Trevor and Jenny circle each other as they try and work things out, spends a few hours watching Game of Thrones and various historical dramas with Elena, and tries not to think about why “we’re keeping you” is sticking in his head even more than most things do. He has a feeling that the answer falls under the subject line ‘that way lies madness’ and so he ignores it as best he can.

Until Donna tells Harvey that someone named Alicia Hardman is dead.

He’s not stupid. He can tell there’s something going on. He’s busy with the copyright case but even so… Something is up and he doesn’t like being kept in the dark. Again. He’d have thought after helping get Clifford out he and Harvey would be past this. Apparently not so much, and ever since Donna’s announcement Harvey’s been running around on mysterious errands. Which isn’t too much trouble since Mike’s handling this particular case on his own, but still more than a little infuriating when he can’t get a straight answer from the man.

Donna isn’t any more forthcoming than Harvey, though that’s hardly a surprise considering she and Harvey work as a unit more than they don’t. “Mike, I know you’re allergic to unsolved mysteries but just leave this one alone.”

Mike barely restrains the urge to point out that she told him that about Cameron Dennis and it turned out to be a good thing he found out what was happening. Instead he leaves, pretending that he’s going to be a good little boy and not ask any questions. Which is exactly what happened about Dennis, so really it’s Harvey and Donna’s own fault if they don’t expect him to do the same thing again.

Chris and Brian aren’t likely to be any help this time, so Mike has to approach this differently. He can guess who Alicia Hardman is - the wife of Daniel Hardman, former managing partner. A little research tells Mike he left five years ago. If she just died… Maybe she was sick or something? Maybe he was taking care of her? Which would suggest that with her gone he might want to come back… And ok, he can see how that might be awkward, what with Jessica being the boss now, and he knows Harvey’s Jessica’s guy, and that Donna has ways of finding things out about everyone connected to the firm.

What he can’t figure out is why Daniel Hardman’s return seems like some kind of emergency. And of the people he knows at the firm, there’s only three people likely to tell him anything. Harold and Ben haven’t been here long enough, and Ben being in IT might not know much about the dynamics upstairs anyway. He didn’t know who Louis was, after all.

Then there’s Rachel, who’s finally stopped being annoyed about the mock trial mess. She mostly forgave him after he proved she wasn’t the person who sold information to Wakefield-Cady, but things are only just starting to feel normal again. So maybe it’s not the best course of action to rock the boat just yet, but what else can he do?

“Hey, I come bearing muffins,” he says, holding up the bakery bag. His last social worker made a habit of getting to know his charges’ favorite foods and he’d bring them along to their meetings. To get the kids to open up, Mike always figured, and he uses the trick himself these days. Brian used to get Red Bull or Chinese takeout, Donna gets her favorite coffee, Mike hasn’t needed to do this with Ben yet but he knows to give him bacon when he does. Harvey he hasn’t figured out yet but he’s sure he will given enough time. Rachel gets double-chocolate muffins.

“What do you want?” Rachel asks, giving him a sharp look over the papers she’s reading.

One downside to this practice. People usually know you want something. But, usually, they want their treat more than they want to deny the help you’re looking for, so that’s ok.

“You were here five years ago, right?” Mike says, handing over the bag of muffins and getting right to the point.

“Yeah, that was when I was hired. Why?” Rachel breaks off a piece of muffin and pops it in her mouth as Mike gathers his thoughts.

“Well, were you here when Daniel Hardman was still in charge?”

Rachel’s eyes narrow and she glances at her open door. Taking the hint, Mike gets up and closes it. When he sits back down, Rachel leans forward a bit. “OK, why are you asking about all that?”

“Because his wife just died, and Donna treated it as some kind of alarm, and Harvey’s been running off on weird errands ever since.”

Rachel sighs. “I was only here for a couple of months when Dani- Hardman quit.” At Mike’s raised eyebrow, she shrugs. “My dad went to Harvard Law, they met there, he and his wife came to our Christmas parties when I was a kid. Anyway, I was only here for a few weeks before he left. But… It all happened really fast, and when it was over, Hardman was gone, Jessica was Managing Partner and took his office. And she took Hardman’s office, giving her old corner office - and a Junior Partner position - to Harvey. And an associate I was friends with, Monica Eton? She got fired, she never really told me why and she doesn’t talk about it even now. But I know I’m the only one at the firm she doesn’t hate on principle.”

Mike nods, trying not to let himself make any quick conclusions. “What do you think happened?”

“I think Jessica made a power play and ran Hardman out - she and Hardman did the same thing, basically, to the old name partners, or so I heard. I think Harvey helped her do it because he’s her guy and because he got a promotion out of it. And Monica got tangled up in it somehow.”

The statement is pretty harsh, but even so, from what Rachel’s said, he can at least see how she came to that conclusion. He’s not sure he believes it himself - of Jessica maybe but Harvey… He knows Harvey’s ambitious but he wouldn’t do that, would he? Mike would like to think not but there’s a tiny part of him that wonders. Just a little.

He has very little time to wonder, of course, because he’s busy fixing the copyright case by putting the screws to everyone involved. He takes a weird, thrilling pride in it - because Lesley was a bitch and screwed Myra over, but Myra tried to get her way with threats against him and the firm, and Mike’s learned too much of loyalty from Brian and Harvey to let that pass without consequence.

“I settled the case,” he tells an oddly-happy looking Harvey. Oddly because over the past few days he’s looked like the ghost had come to dinner.

“Slammed the plaintiff?”

“Oh, I slammed everybody.”

“That's what I like to hear.”

Mike really shouldn’t get as strong a thrill from that as he does, and he knows it, but now isn’t the time to think on why Harvey’s pride in him strikes such a very different chord from Brian’s, back in the day. Not with Harvey the almost-telepathic right there, anyway.

There’s a crowd ahead of them and a man, average height, maybe a little short, with thinning curly hair and a plump build. He’s the reason for the crowd, Mike guesses, and though he has no real idea who he is, a glance at Harvey’s suddenly stricken face tells him that this is most likely Daniel Hardman. And the beginning of his speech confirms it.

“When I ran Pearson Hardman I was charming, witty and adorable. I was also unscrupulous, power-hungry, and greedy. I thought I could get away with anything. And that's exactly what I tried to do. I risked the firm's reputation and the careers of everyone in it. These last few years have humbled me. And I've decided to come back and show that we can be a successful law firm without breaking the rules.”

Hardman pauses for a moment, then continues. “Unfortunately, the only way that I can do that is by coming clean about my past. Because if we are busy hiding what we have done it leaves us vulnerable to anyone who discovers our secrets. And we become so consumed with keeping them, that it is a slippery slope to doing even worse things. While I was head of this firm, I borrowed funds from various escrow accounts. The clients never found out about it. I paid back every cent. But make no mistake, I could have been convicted of theft, plain and simple. I want everyone here to know the kind of man I was. And the kind of man I am. Thank you.”

Harvey’s gone before Mike can say a word to him, and judging from his expression Mike decides he’ll talk to him in a little while. So he settles back in at his desk, finishing up the case paperwork and responding to an e-mail from Elena about being her date to some party where she “could show up solo but I want someone I can talk to”.

He’s not doing anything Saturday night so far as he knows, no plans till he’s going with Bianca to see Anya in her new play three weeks from now, and he still owes Elena for the suits, so he agrees to go barring any work issues coming up. He’s going to visit his grandmother again Saturday morning… if she’ll see him. The last two times she freaked out over the “stranger” who wanted to see her. So by Saturday night he’s probably going to need something to distract himself with. Being Elena’s arm candy for the night works.

Thinking about that isn’t helping him any. So instead, he gathers up his stuff. He needs to talk to Harvey.


	2. Shadows in the Street

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hardman's back, and that means trouble, even if no one yet knows what kind.

Harvey is aware he’s something of a cliche, staring out at the city with a glass of scotch in his hand, but he can’t bring himself to care. Hardman can play contrite all he wants, but he, Donna, and Jessica all know better. That man is out for blood. The only question is how. Before, Hardman was an asshole - there was a reason he was even more despised as associate wrangler than Louis is these days.

Now, it looks like Hardman’s going to play the nice guy. But what good does that do him? Everyone who has the power to help him push out Jessica was here then too - they know him. Truth is, he’s got his partisans, same as Jessica. Among the senior partners, Harvey can guess it’ll be something of a near-even split. As of now Jessica should have the edge - Hardman’s confession may win him brownie points with the bullpen, but probably not among senior partners who’ve put their own money up to buy into the firm.

But he’s got a plan. That much is clear.

Footsteps make Harvey turn, and really he’s not surprised to see Mike hovering in the doorway. He studies the younger man in silence for a long moment, then tilts his head in a subtle invitation. “You really are incapable of leaving things alone, aren’t you?” he asks as Mike comes up to stand next to him by the window.

“Pretty much, yeah. And I’m not an idiot, so… You were trying to stop Hardman from coming back, weren’t you?”

 

“You heard what he said about why he left in the first place. Do you blame me?”

 

Mike’s silent for a moment. “No. I’d heard that it was a power play, and about an associate who got caught up in it. Monica Eton? What did she do?”

 

Shit. How the hell does Mike know about any of this? Donna wouldn’t tell him, he’s sure of that, but… He doesn’t ask, though; he has a feeling Mike wouldn’t tell him if he did. “When Jessica and I found out that Daniel was embezzling from clients, we confronted him,” Harvey begins. He’s giving Mike the truth because the past has shown Mike won’t leave this alone. And God only knows what Hardman will do with that, if he realizes Mike’s poking around.

 

That’s part of why Harvey’s telling him, anyway.

 

“He broke down,” he continues. “He said his wife had cancer, and he needed the money to try and save her life. Turns out, he needed the money to support his mistress. Now he's saying he's different. But a man who would do that is a man I find very difficult to trust.”

 

Mike gives him a long, searching look. “Do you trust me?”

 

And that, of course, is the other reason why Harvey told him the truth. “That’s what I wanted you to know.” Because he does trust Mike now. Crazy interview-crashing kid that he is. He’s been right there when Harvey demanded it and even when he tried to fight it. So, yeah, he trusts him. Besides, it’s almost a given that Mike’s going to get drawn into this fight, and it’s better if he knows the truth about what’s going on.

 

Mike leaves, for once almost silent, and Harvey stares down into his glass, at the ice melting into amber dregs, and doesn’t look up even when he feels Donna’s eyes on him. “We just got out of one mess,” he says with quiet exhaustion, and then a narrow, long-fingered hand takes his glass away from him.

 

“And we’ll get out of this one too,” Donna says, perching on the little coffee table, waiting until Harvey looks at her. “At least this time we know what we’re up against, and he won’t catch us off guard.”

 

“You don’t think so? I guarantee he’s up to something.”

 

Donna shrugs. “Of course he’s up to something. Most of the people here are up to something. Except, possibly, the IT guys. And Harold.”

 

“Harold?” He doesn’t really know or care who that is, but it’s something to focus on for thirty seconds.

 

“Curly blond hair, scared expression? Mike likes him, I’m sure you’ve seen them talking once or twice. Anyway, you’re distracting me, don’t do that.” She pokes his calf gently with her foot. “The point was, of course he’s got some scheme to get the firm back. You know that, I know that, Jessica knows that, and while Mike’s unaware of the specifics, he knows enough now to back your play as usual.”

 

“You think I shouldn’t have -”

 

“Of course you should have. I would have told him when he asked me, except you were still trying to stop Hardman from coming back at all, and I didn’t see the point when it might not be necessary. I’d love to know how he picked up enough to know Monica’s name, though it’s hardly surprising.” Donna sighs, filling the glass she took from Harvey and taking a drink herself. “Any ideas on what you think he’ll do?”

 

She means Hardman, not Mike, Harvey knows. He shrugs. “I’m not sure. The nice guy eating humble pie routine’s got to be the first step - win over people who hated him before, or that don’t approve of how Jessica handles things.” He fiddles with one of his cufflinks, an old habit he’d all but broken. He would toss one of his baseballs instead, but none of them are in reach and he doesn’t feel like getting up. “He can’t oust Jessica the way he was ousted, because she hasn’t done anything wrong. So he’ll have to drum up support to get her voted out… But there’s no grounds for that either, so I don’t know.”

 

He sighs, slumping back. “Hell, maybe he really does intend to play number two, and angle for behind-the-scenes power instead of the title.” Even as he says it, Harvey knows he doesn’t buy it, and from Donna’s expression, neither does she. It’s useful to say it all out loud, to have the situation stated, but it doesn’t help them guess what’s coming. Hardman wants his power back, and he’s bound to be plotting already, that’s all they can know.

 

But the fact remains, they’re secure. So how does Hardman intend to mess that up?

 


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Donna gets to know Mike a little more, but she's not the only one, and that's worrying.

What with everything, Donna hasn’t been able to get out to the theater in a couple of months, and with Hardman back she’s pretty sure that once again time will be in short supply soon, she heads out to one of her favorite off-Broadway ones. Not that she doesn’t love the top-of-the-line professional shows, but before she gave up on acting herself, this was the kind of place she could afford to buy tickets to, the kind of place where the jobs she got were. So, yeah, she likes them just as much.

 

She doesn’t recognize the musical, which is another reason to pick it. Something new is more likely to catch and hold her attention. Or it would, if the story was at all interesting. It’s not, though the lead actress has a smoky, captivating voice that Donna would have killed for when she was listening to Broadway soundtracks and hadn’t yet really discovered Shakespeare. But the overall dullness means that Donna isn’t paying the level of attention she’d planned to, and her mind’s wandering.

 

She resists the urge to text either of her boys to check on them, and yes, that’s how she thinks of them most of the time. Only in the privacy of her own mind, and half because the reactions she’d get from both Harvey and Mike would be priceless if they ever found out. They are her boys, though, whether they know it or not.

 

But she’s not going to check on them tonight. Things are, for the moment, quiet, so she doesn’t need to.

 

In the lobby after the play, though, she hears a familiar laugh and turns to find Mike standing with a pretty blonde. For some reason it throws her off-balance - she thought Mike was interested in Rachel, or in his friend’s ex that was one of his mock trial witnesses. But here he is with his arm around some girl’s shoulders. Well… Good for him.

 

That’s the same thing she told herself about Harvey when Scottie was in town, which…

 

She doesn’t have time to wonder about that coincidence because Mike spots her and slips away from his date, coming over to her. “Hey, Donna, watching the acting instead of being one tonight?”

 

“If you can call it that, most of them weren’t very good,” she tells him, and gets a bright grin.

 

“Yeah, I know, Bianca was just telling me about how Anya bitched about her castmates all through rehearsals,” Mike says, shaking his head. “I mean, I didn’t think they were horrible, not with the crappy script they had to work with, but still.”

 

Anya? Wait, Donna knows that name… Anya Trieste is the lead actress - she looked the name up on her playbill during intermission. “You and your date know the lead?”

 

“Well, I certainly hope Bianca does, seeing as they’re married,” Mike says, deadpan. “Anya and I were in the system together, we met Bianca at college. I usually try to come with Bianca to see Anya’s opening nights when I can get the time.”

 

It’s one of the things that’s odd about Mike; he never talks much about spending his adolescent years in foster care, but he’ll mention it so offhandedly it’s almost unsettling. Donna shakes away that thought, focusing on the rest of his statement. “So she’s not your girlfriend.”

 

“Bianca? Oh, hell no. Anya would skin us both alive… or tell Bianca no outsiders unless she’s invited.”

 

“And you know this from experience?”

 

“I don’t kiss and tell.”

 

Donna gives Mike a mock-glare. “You know, for all that Harvey told me he wanted ‘another him’, there is such a thing as getting too much like your mentor there, kid. Watch the sass,” she says, poking him in the shoulder. Mike gives her wide, innocent eyes.

 

“But I thought you liked it? Or do you only love me for the coffee I bring you?” Mike glances over his shoulder to where Bianca has been joined by Anya, still half in costume. They’re a bit occupied, Donna notes, wrapped around each other to an extent that’s very nearly at a level of public indecency. “Which, if that’s the case, there’s a great coffeeshop around the corner and I don’t think Bianca needs company anymore.”

 

“Oh, so I’m your second choice?” Donna says, raising her eyebrows. “I think I should be insulted by that.”

 

“Of course not, but you’re supposed to leave with the one you came with, unless they get a better offer. Clearly, Bianca and I both did… different kinds of better, of course.”

 

She takes pity on him and the way his ears turn bright red, patting his arm. “All right, let’s see if this coffeeshop lives up to your claims.”

 

As it happens, it does. Or maybe it’s the company. Donna doesn’t actually get home till midnight, which catches her by surprise; she didn’t think she and Mike talked so late. Not that she’s complaining. She had fun with him. And at least she knows he’s all right, even if Harvey’s determined not to let her check in properly with him. Not that it works; he’s on red alert with Hardman back and she knows it.

 

Which is why it’s unfortunately not a surprise when there’s only one more quiet day before Hardman makes his first move. He steals Mike for a case, and since as a founding partner he answers only to Jessica, Harvey can’t stop him. For a week they don’t see Mike, and when he gets back…

 

He says nothing happened, that Hardman was perfectly friendly. “He wanted to kick my tires, I think. Figure out why Harvey of all people hired someone who doesn’t look impressive on paper,” he tells Donna with a shrug as he leans against her partition wall, handing over the coffee she likes. “It’s not a surprise, really, is it?”

 

No, it’s not, because Mike is probably the wild card as far as Hardman is concerned. Harvey’s rates are better than ever - it’s not so much that he’s having more success (though that has gone up a bit, not that he’ll admit it) so much as success is coming faster. When compromises are necessary, they’re better for the client than ever. And Hardman had known Jessica has Harvey backing her up, he’d known that Donna and Harvey were their own team. She doesn’t know if Hardman knows that she gave Harvey the specific tipoff about Monica or not, but he’s not stupid.

 

He’s looking for a weak spot. And Mike’s wariness isn’t comforting, in the face of that.

 

So it’s Mike she’s watching, worrying about, when an old case comes back to bite them in the ass and she finds herself holding a memo that says the weak link, if Hardman can find it, might be her, and not Mike. Her and one stupid, _stupid_ filing error.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, it is season 2...


	4. Who is the Lamb (and Who is the Knife)?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hardman did a little more than just put Mike through his paces.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So in canon 2.04, Louis only claims Mike for a case so Hardman doesn't. Here, Hardman gets him, and this is why Donna noticed Mike was unsettled after he was back where he belonged.
> 
> Uses dialogue from the canon 2.05, which doesn't happen here simply because I couldn't figure out how to close the case without a lucid Edith to help Mike in his plan.

Mike’s not sure what to make of it when Hardman calls him into his office. He’d been more than a little unsettled when Hardman had claimed him for a case, but it all went pretty well. No pointed questions about Harvey or Jessica or anything like that (and thank fuck he doesn't seem to know about McKernon Motors), just putting Mike through his paces, which is a fair enough thing to do with someone outside usual hiring parameters. But the case is over, so why exactly is Mike here? “Uh, you wanted to see me, Mr. Hardman?

“Please. Call me Daniel.” He waves toward a chair. “Sit down. First of all, I want to tell you that that I’m now starting to see why Harvey speaks very highly of you.”

Mike has to laugh, because that’s an outright lie and he knows it. Oh, he thinks Harvey likes him most of the time; he also knows that’s not Harvey’s way. “He does?”

“Well, it's Harvey,” Hardman says, like they’re sharing a joke. “So you have to read between the lines.”

“What did he say? That I'm-- I'm not a complete idiot?”

“Something like that. And of course, you must have impressed him. And Jessica as well. In my day we never made exceptions for the Harvard rule. If you don’t mind my asking, how did you manage that?”

Mike doesn’t like this. The ‘in my day’ thing can be taken as an insult, or as a sort of… avuncular friendly comment. Which seems to be the vibe Hardman wants to give. Which, in light of Harvey and Donna’s DEFCON 1 behavior when they realized he might come back, Mike doesn’t buy for a second. And he doesn’t like that Hardman waited to ask until the end of the case, though maybe he was trying to lull Mike into a false sense of security. Which Mike has to admit worked. Damn it.

The fact that the behavior pattern reminds him of his least favorite foster parent probably has something else to do with the way Mike’s skin is crawling. Something about Hardman’s manner reminds him of how that particular foster parent would smile kindly before making one of the boys in his care do push-ups until he literally collapsed. Pushing those memories aside, he focuses on Hardman again.

“It’s not that complicated, really,” he says after a moment, absently twisting his Hudson Law ring. “I had a friend in the DA’s office who was contacted about the interviews, he mentioned them. So I crashed it, and Harvey liked my nerve. I think Jessica only agreed because otherwise she’d have to get Harvey to do another round of interviews and that would be time wasted. Letting him have me was simpler.”

Hardman chuckles, even as he reaches into his drawer and pulls out a cigarette. Mike raises his eyebrows, because he’s pretty sure there’s a policy about smoking anywhere but the heavily-ventilated smokers’ break room, but having your name on the door probably means you get out of things like that.

“I’ve always hated these things. A filthy habit,” Hardman says, just before he takes a drag. Mike, who smokes occasionally himself and used to smoke pot more than he did tobacco, doesn’t say a word.

“My daughter was 15. I caught her smoking, and I hit the roof. But then my wife got sick. And then when the cancer got to her lungs, once a week, we would share a cigarette. Give it the finger. Monday nights at 9:00. I can't stop. I don't want to stop.”

Mike really isn’t sure what to say to that. What does a person say to something like that? So he deflects. “Uh… Was there something you wanted me to do, a last-minute thing for the case?” He doesn’t address him as either Mr. Hardman or Daniel, carefully keeping neutral on that front.

“No, no, I’m just catching up on the interesting things I’ve missed, Mike. And it turns out you are certainly very interesting. Seems like you’ve had quite a run of luck. So far, at least.”

Mike stills. “So far?”

“Well, luck can change, can’t it?”

Mike’s not sure, but he thinks that’s a threat.

 


	5. I Hate the Fall

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some things just don't change... Suits 2.05, where some things do go a little differently, but the end remains the same.

It’s not working. Why isn’t it working? Donna fiddles with the switch on the paper shredded, but it’s still not working. And she has to get rid of this file now. After Mike almost catching her this morning, after she went off on Rachel because this is hanging over her head… She’s got to get rid of it. She can’t do that if the damn thing -

  
  


“I unplugged it.” Donna turns to see Mike, who looks grimmer than she’s ever seen him. “And this time I’m not stopping you by accident.”

  
  


“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” This is Mike, Donna tells herself. He’s good, and he’s smart, their puppy, but she can still bluff her way out of this with him. She thinks so, anyway. She just has to stay calm long enough to pull it off. Except that the look Mike is giving her is sharp, and suspicious, and really, she’s supposed to be a better actress than this, when did Mike learn to see right through her?

  
  


“Don't bullshit me, Donna.That's the same file you had in your hand this morning. You ran out of here like you saw a ghost, you bit off Rachel's head, talking about how people never have the things they're supposed to have, and now you're right back here again. It's not Dalton Enterprises you're holding. That's the memo that Harvey's been accused of burying.”

  
  


“You know, the fact that you would even accuse me of that makes me sick. But if you still don't believe me, fine. See for yourself.” She’s hoping that throwing his accusations in his face will make him feel guilty, enough that he lets it go and stops pressing her, which is why she takes the risk of offering the folder. She’s banking on him thinking that she wouldn’t do that if he was right, but then he reaches for it and her grip tightens, so he can’t take it from her. “I don’t know what to do,” she says, voice uneven, and it all crumbles around her. She could have taken care of this, no one would ever have known, but now Mike does and her simple plan isn’t going to work.

  
  


“Tell me what happened,” Mike says, and for a moment she considers refusing, but what would be the point now?”

  
  


“I found it in the file room that day,” she explains, remembering how until then it had almost been… Well, not fun, but if nothing else it had been nice to have Mike back after Hardman stole him. And pretending to have hidden in there to fool around was totally worth it for the look on Harold’s face, poor boy. But then it had all gone to hell and… “It has my date stamp on it - mine.”

  
  


“We have to tell Harvey.”

  
  


No, no they do not, they can’t tell Harvey. “He’ll know what to do,” Mike insists, and Donna wants to shake him.

  
  


“No he won’t.”

  
  


“Donna, Harvey’s been operating under the assumption that we never had this memo, all right? At some point that assumption is gonna bite him in the ass, and the later it happens, the bigger the bite.”

  
  


He doesn’t see it, Donna realizes with a sinking feeling. He doesn’t realize that it’s too late to come forward now, that it’s too late to say this is an honest mistake. Especially with Hardman’s lackey Allison Holt sniffing around. “Nobody is going to believe a file that important just got lost. They’ll think that I got rid of it, that Harvey asked me to do it.”

  
  


“Donna, if you got rid of it, you wouldn’t have been stupid enough to bury it, you’d have shredded it back then.”

  
  


“They don’t know that, Mike!”

  
  


“This memo is part of a legal proceeding. Shredding it is a crime. Right now it’s a mistake, even if a really big one, but mistakes aren’t illegal.”

  
  


“I am protecting Harvey the best way that I know how,” Donna snaps, and yes, she’s protecting herself too, but she’s not in the biggest trouble here, at least not if she can just prevent this from going any further.

  
  


“Allison Holt is gonna figure out what happened,” Mike says, quiet and unyielding, and she didn’t know he could be so immovable. Why didn’t she know that? “And when she does, her priority's not going to be protecting you or Harvey. It's gonna be protecting the firm. You might be comfortable putting Harvey in that position, but I'm not. So either you tell him, or I will.”

  
  


Mike leaves her there, holding her file, and Donna doesn’t know what to do. She can’t let him tell Harvey, though, so she braces herself to do it. Comes so close, in fact, but then Allison Holt and Hardman burst in and she panics.

  
  


Ten minutes later she’s feeding the memo into a shredder almost without realizing she’s doing it.

\---

Mike comes up the hall just as Donna strides out of the conference room. From the narrow-eyed look Allison Holt is giving her through the glass, Mike suspects she just walked out mid-deposition. From the way Donna avoids his eyes, he knows she didn’t tell Harvey about the memo yet.

  
  


Shit.

  
  


Mike should go tell Harvey right now. He knows it. But he can’t. Part of it is the near-panic he saw in Donna’s eyes earlier but the rest… Harvey and Donna are a unit, as far as Mike’s seen; it feels somehow wrong to interfere in that. Like it’s not his place, even if he’s well-meaning overall. Even if he... Now's not the time to think about that.

  
  


Not that he gets the chance to do anything at all, whether that’s catch up with Donna or tell Harvey or stay out of it. Maybe his worry shows, or maybe he was always on her list for some reason, but Allison Holt beckons him over. “May as well talk to you next. Come on.”

  
  


Mike frowns. “Wait, why me? I wasn’t here four years ago.”

  
  


“I know that. Let’s go.”

  
  


Mike sighs, dropping into the chair across from the camera lens. He does it with bad grace and he knows it, but he can’t bring himself to give a damn. He’s got a teenager to emancipate from an abusive home; he doesn’t have time for this when he’s not even helping Harvey and/or Donna by doing it.

  
  


“Huh. Is this universal bad attitude about the fact that Daniel Hardman hired me, or is it that you know I’ll find something? Because I’ve gotta tell you, I hope this isn’t how all of you intend to behave in the real deposition. Juries hate it.”

  
  


It takes all the deception Mike learned as a foster kid to keep his expression neutral. “Again, not here four years ago. Nothing to hide.”

  
  


“No, you weren’t here four years ago,” she says, sitting down across from him. “In fact, you shouldn’t be here at all. As a rule, Pearson Hardman hires from Harvard - only from Harvard. You are the only lawyer who isn’t a Harvard graduate. Because Harvey gave you a chance, right?”

  
  


Mike rolls his eyes. “I crashed his interviews and he liked my nerve. Again -”

  
  


“Yes, I get it,” Allison Holt cuts him off. “You weren’t here four years ago. However, you _were_ here four months ago for the Clifford Danner retrial. When your boss admitted that he’d previously buried evidence.”

  
  


“Cameron Dennis buried that evidence.”

  
  


“Convenient.”

  
  


“OK, look. I’ve got a kid to get away from an abusive parent. So why am I here?” Mike snaps, reaching over and shutting the camera off.

  
  


“You’re Harvey’s boy.You’re going to tell me you don’t know what he and Donna are hiding? You owe him, you’re loyal to him. You’d lie for him.”

  
  


Mike stands up so fast he almost knocks over his chair. “I’m not anyone’s _boy_ , Ms. Holt. I’m a former ADA and I would not perjure myself for anyone. Harvey didn’t do this, and I don’t care if you think otherwise, I know he didn’t. And if Tanner deposes me, which he might, for the same reason as you, I’ll say the same damn thing because it’s the truth. Have a nice day, we’re done here.”

  
  


Her voice stops him at the door. “And what about Donna? Would she hide it for him, if he asked? If he didn’t ask, even?”

  
  


It’s too close to truth, Mike thinks. Allison Holt suspects something, but at the moment, she thinks Donna hid the memo back in the day. She isn’t thinking that it could have begun as an accident, and only now are they approaching something like the accusations being leveled.

  
  


“Donna left the DA with Harvey,” he says instead. “She left with him because they both figured out what was happening and refused to be a part of it. So why would either of them turn around and do exactly the same thing years later?” He doesn’t give her a chance to respond, just keeps walking. He has a case to handle, and he has to figure out what the hell he’s going to do knowing Donna has that memo.

  
  


He told her he’d go to Harvey, but does he have that right? Mike doesn’t know, and it means he’s not sure what to do. So for now, he tells himself to stay out of it, to do nothing except get through this case, get Marco away from his father. Because Mike knows what it is to live with a man who won’t stand for defiance, and Marco’s father didn’t quite strike him that way, but then, the social workers never picked up on it either, with Mr. Talbot. Mike was lucky to only be there for five months before he was eighteen and aged out of the system. He couldn’t do a damn thing for the younger boys, not then. But this time it’s different. This time he can do something.

  
  


And he means to.

  
  


\---

  
  


Harvey isn’t an idiot, and Mike isn’t subtle, so he knows knocking the coffee onto the affidavit wasn’t an accident. Since it wasn’t an accident, Mike must have some reason for it, something he doesn’t want to say out loud with Jessica right here. He’s so focused on this that he almost doesn’t hear Jessica comment, “I knew he wasn’t from Harvard, but I didn’t think he was an idiot.”

  
  


“I knew he was an idiot, I didn’t think he was spastic,” Harvey says on autopilot, more focused on the fact that Mike doesn’t look the least bit embarrassed or bothered by the mockery. More proof that something is very wrong.

  
  


“I’ll get you a fresh one of these,” Jessica says, and leaves. Harvey turns on Mike immediately.

  
  


“What the hell was that?”

  
  


“What?” Harvey is sure Mike doesn’t actually think he’ll buy the innocent crap, which makes it all the more annoying that he’s even trying it.

  
  


“You know what.”

  
  


“It was an accident.”

  
  


“It was intentional. You ambushed me with a cup of coffee. Think I haven't seen Ronin? ” And if Mike doesn’t stop playing games, Harvey is going to strangle him with that ridiculous skinny tie. Luckily, something about his voice or expression finally makes Mike back down, his shoulders slumping just a little. It’s a small gesture but enough that Harvey knows this shitstorm just got worse.

  
  


“It was all I could think of.”

  
  


“Meaning?”

  
  


“Donna was supposed to tell you.”

  
  


“Tell me what?” Donna? No, she wouldn’t hide something like this from him, she knows better, except… Except… Except this morning she was going to tell him something, he’d assumed it was only that she needed off on Halloween just like every other year. But now he wonders if that might not be it, if it was something much worse, remembers how she fled when Hardman and his puppet stormed into the office.

  
  


And somehow, he’s not surprised when Mike says, “You can't sign the affidavit. You'll be committing perjury.”

  
  


He’s not surprised, but that doesn’t mean Harvey knows what to do. This… This is something utterly unprecedented. Donna has always been the one right there with him, not the one hiding things. Even when she went behind his back to give Jessica the information on Cameron, that was more… Doing a necessary thing that was easier for her than for him. This is different, this is something that really could break them, and he’s not sure what to do about that.

  
  


He finds Donna in the bathroom, and he should probably care that he’s just stormed into the women’s room but he doesn’t, not now. Not with his head spinning with the realization that she may well have just damned them both. She won't look at him directly when he bursts in, though he's sure she's watching him in the mirror as he checks each stall, making sure they're alone before he speaks.

  
  


“What the hell were you thinking? “

  
  


“I didn't know how to tell you,” she says, still watching his reflection rather than him, and Harvey doesn't think he's ever seen her this upset, not once. He can't let it get to him, can't let himself worry about her, but it scares him. “'Harvey, I found the memo.' Is that so goddamn hard?” he snaps, before he breaks one way or another.

  
  


Donna spins to face him, eyes too-wide and shining with unshed tears. “You don't understand,” she tells him, and she sounds angry and scared and defeated, all at once, her voice unsteady. “It had my name on it. I stamped it in. That implicates you.

  
  


“Did you keep it from me four years ago?” He knows the answer, but he thought he knew she'd never keep something like this from him, so he needs to hear it.

  
  


“I don't even remember _seeing_ it four years ago.” Now Donna's voice does crack, but he can't let that give him pause. He has to get to the bottom of this, find out just how much worse this situation has gotten. Find out just how much she's hidden from him – how much Mike didn't tell him, and that they're _both_ in on this is salt in the wound, it makes it worse in ways he would never have expected.

  
  


“Then I don't give a shit what it implicates. You don't keep it from me now.”

  
  


“I had never made a mistake like that,” Donna says, trying to explain, and part of Harvey doesn't want to hear it and part of him almost needs to. “And I thought that I needed to--

  
  


“Look, keeping it from me isn't a mistake. It's a decision.” No, he can't hear it. There's no time for this. Later they can sit down and discuss this if they really have to, because clearly he needs to reiterate that he needs to know everything that's going on. But right now -

  
  


“I wanted to protect you!”

  
  


“Lying to me doesn't protect me. It betrays me.” Maybe that's harsh; he knows she means it when she says she meant to protect him, knows that the only one acting in bad faith right now is maybe Allison Holt, and hell, maybe not even her. But that doesn't matter right now, and Donna needs to understand something he thought she knew.

  
  


“Betrays you? If I had told you the truth--”

  
  


“You don't keep things from me!”

  
  


“You keep things from me all the time!”

  
  


It feels like there's more to that than what's going on right now, and if anything, that makes Harvey angrier. Whatever else he's kept from her, it hasn't been something that could ruin her like this could him. It makes him feel like he's missed things, like she thinks he should be apologizing, and probably he's got a lot of shitty things she can throw at him, but not now. She messed up this time, what he's done other times doesn't matter. “That's because I'm your boss,” he bites out.

  
  


“Well, maybe you shouldn't be my boss anymore. I did what I thought I had to do for you, and if you can't -” Her voice catches on a word, and she shakes her head a little, like she's dismissing whatever she meant to say. “Just fire me.”

  
  


Her words fall heavy into the silence, and for a moment Harvey wonders if this is it, the line he never thought they'd cross, the one that fucks up everything far worse than deciding not to leave that one night behind them might have done. He can't face that right now, can't think about that with the guilt of what he did to the Randalls, with the stress of this damned lawsuit that isn't his fault because he didn't know. He isn't sure he could face crossing that line ever, but especially not now. So he takes a deep breath and focuses on business, to try and explain things so she'll calm down and not do anything reckless. So she'll understand that this is bad, but it could be worse.

  
  


“Let me explain something to you. That memo doesn't hurt me. It helps me. If I had buried it, we wouldn't have it. But you found it, so that's a good thing.”

  
  


The look on her face tells him they're screwed, but he has to hear it. He has to be sure. “What? Wh-what'd you do?” When she turns away, pacing almost to the wall, his heart sinks even more. “Oh, what did you do?”

  
  


“Allison had that frigging camera, and I was-- she implied that we were--”

  
  


“What did you do?”

  
  


“It's gone.”

  
  


Christ, he wishes he was surprised, but some part of him expected to hear her say this from the moment Mike told him signing the affidavit meant perjury. Some part of him knew it was too late to fix this – if either of them, _either of them_ had told him, this would not be happening. How dare they decide this without him? “You destroyed it? I'm not going to fire you, Donna. I might _kill_ you, but I'm not gonna fire you.”

  
  


He turns and leaves her there, pushes past Mike who's hovering as close as he dares without drawing attention. He hears the younger man stumble, hears the door open and their voices behind him, but he doesn't care. God, he can just see how smug Hardman will be, and Tanner...

  
  


He has to leave Donna and Mike there, he can't turn and see what they're doing, can't turn and see _them_ , or he might say or do something he'll regret.

  
  


\---

  
  


Mike double-checks his facts after Harvey’s words jog his brain, and after talking to Oscar he barely keeps himself from decking Jeffrey in the face at that diner. The only thing that stops him is this slimy bastard isn’t worth an assault charge. Or Harvey having more trouble to deal with, since said slimy bastard is a friend, of sorts. There’s enough shit going on, and Harvey's still pissed off enough at him that Mike also thinks he'd better lay low a while. So Mike doesn’t do anything, just goes to see Marco at the tennis court.

  
  


“I got the emancipation,” he calls out, and the kid jogs over. Before Marco can thank him, Mike continues, “I’m not filing it.”

  
  


“Wh- but, why not?” Marco says, wrong-footed and angry and confused, suddenly looking seventeen. Mike’s stomach knots all the more, and he swallows hard, looking away for a moment.

  
  


“Because your father wasn’t the one who pushed you hard enough to put you in the hospital, Marco,” he says quietly. “You were right, that was abusive behavior, but it wasn’t your dad, it was Jeffrey. And I’m sure you’re going to tell me he did it to get you to your peak potential, because admitting it was abusive doesn’t help your case if it wasn’t your father.”

  
  


Marco scowls at him. “Look, I need -”

  
  


“You need the chance to prove you’re the best. I get that, believe me. Just because I can still do math when I’m ninety doesn’t mean that I want to wait to prove myself. I get it, all right? But look…” Mike takes a deep breath. “I haven’t discussed this with anyone, but your story… I would’ve fought for you anyway, but it touched a nerve. I went into foster care when I was thirteen, and the last home I lived in… He’d say he was teaching us not to be defiant, because it would only get us in trouble. He’d say the ‘physical training’ was good practice for the army, that the military was a good life for kids with no prospects and he was just helping us. And there was just enough logic in what he said that we didn’t fight back, wouldn’t have had anything convincing to tell our caseworkers even if we had.”

  
  


Mike pauses, waiting until Marco looks him in the eye again before he continues. “Marco, that’s what Jeffrey was doing, only he was doing it for money instead of kicks. Your dad… He means well, all right? If anything, I do think seeing how far you were willing to go has made him realize this isn’t just you rebelling, so… Maybe you can talk.”

  
  


Marco is quiet for a long moment. “He is never going to understand.”

  
  


“And my father didn’t get why I wasn’t just like him. But I’d give anything to have him back. You have a chance to fix things that some people never get. Think about that before you waste it.” And Mike walks away, because he can’t handle a moment more of this conversation. He really can’t.

  
  


Footsteps behind him make him turn back. Marco’s jogging up to him, fingers tight around a tennis ball. “You really think he’ll listen?”

  
  


Mike considers. The kid deserves the basic decency of truth from somebody, because his agent’s been lying to him and his father has so far refused to see any terms but his own. “I don’t know, Marco. I just know that if you don’t try to get through to him, one day you’ll regret losing him.”

  
  


How that simple sentence ends with Mike holding a signed tennis ball as a thank-you he’s not entirely sure, but he doesn’t push it either. He also doesn't argue when Rachel wants to give it to Louis; he'd mostly been joking about starting a collection like Harvey's. It's cool enough, but not really what he'd do if and when he has an office, not just a bullpen desk. There's bigger problems than a tennis ball anyway, and that's the difficult part.

  
  


He told Rachel Harvey would fix Donna's problem, but does he really believe that? With his own past rearing its head again, he remembers thinking adults knew everything, would fix the awful place he was put in. No one even noticed, much less had the power to fix it. He remembers cases at the DA's office where both the victim and the criminal were people who needed help, not a trial to give some semblance of 'justice'. He remembers that cases like that never ended, are what made him leave, what brought him here.

  
  


Brian told him when he was a rookie that no one can fix everything, a lesson he had thought he knew, but somehow has to learn again and again.

  
  


He learns it again, Rachel standing next to him as astonished as he is, when Donna walks to the elevator, box of her personal effects in hand. When Harvey presses the elevator button for her and says nothing, when Mike watches them both and thinks he should have intervened sooner, because disrupting their unit would not have been nearly as unimaginable as watching it crumble away is now.

  
  


The doors close, taking Donna away from them, and Harvey looks their way. Or maybe just Mike's way; their eyes catch and hold, and Mike senses Rachel slipping away but doesn't actually see anything but Harvey looking at him.

  
  


Sometimes you just can't fix things.

 


	6. Outside Influence

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After Harvey almost gambles away a client's company, Mike needs some time away from the increasingly stressful world of the firm. He might get more than he bargained for.

He's still unsettled by it. It's stupid, maybe, because Mike's been in worse situations thanks to work. He vividly remembers almost getting stabbed with a pair of scissors once, when he'd been down at the precinct he tended to be attached to and a guy got free of the cops leading him down to lockup. He's been threatened personally, even a couple death threats – the scissor incident had been more a case of he was in range and the guy was angry – and he's had more nightmares than he cares to list over crime scene photos and the handful of times he saw crime scenes in person.

  
  


But for all that, what still has him off-balance even days later is the fact that Harvey literally _gambled with his client's company_. It's not the first time Mike's seen Harvey bend rules and cross lines – what the two of them and Trevor did with those prep school assholes to get a confession, the bluff pulled on Tanner the first time he came to town, for just two examples – but there's something about this one that's different. It wasn't a controlled risk, and all the others were. It's like all Harvey could think about was the win, and he didn't care what that meant, didn't care how crazy he got to get it. It was different, and in truth Harvey seems different, and Mike can't quite explain how, only that it's there and it is actually scaring him.

  
  


Oh, who is he kidding? What's different now is that Donna's gone, and however angry Harvey might have been at her, without her he's... Off-balance is the best Mike can come up with. It makes sense; they've been a team for over a decade, and given the circumstances the sudden end to that is even worse than it might otherwise have been.

  
  


When Saturday rolls around, Mike does what he always does and goes to visit his grandmother. Or, rather, he tries. Until recently, the routine of coming at precisely noon on Saturdays was enough not to spook her; she didn't quite know who he was but she knew he always came and sat with her, listening to her talk. She thought she told stories, and sometimes she did; other days she rambled on a different subject every other minute.

  
  


But then he'd missed a week because he was out of town for a case and literally could not get back to the city. Just one. And now she panics every time he steps in the room. So Mike doesn't go in anymore, he can't do that to her and honestly he can't face her reaction. Instead he talks to the nurses and reads the charts, trying to pretend he does some good.

  
  


After he leaves, he doesn't let himself think too much, and just takes the subway route that leaves him a block from Elena's door. She answers, takes one look at him and says, “OK, what's going on, Cam Jensen?”

  
  


“I'm not a girl,” Mike protests tiredly, his usual response to the old nickname, but actually it helps to hear it.

  
  


Elena doesn't ask until they're at her kitchen table with coffee, at which point she gives him the look that always makes him think she's wasted as a designer; she'd be hell on wheels at cross-examination. “OK so it's Saturday, so I'm guessing part of the problem is that you tried to see your grandmother and still no success, right?”

  
  


“I know it's stupid, El, but I've got to do something,” Mike says, running a hand through his hair. “I just missed a week, and now I can't even – I said I'd take care of her when I got out, I meant it, and I did, even when it meant letting professionals handle it I made that happen, made sure they were good, and I was there. Now I can't be.”

  
  


“Hey. You listen to me. You're doing everything you can. More than some would. And you already know that, as much as you don't like what it's come down to. So what else is going on, huh? You stopped talking about work again, and that's after you talked so much about your boss and his spymaster secretary that I'm still trying to decide which one you have a crush on.”

  
  


Mike almost chokes on his coffee, but wisely makes absolutely no comment about crushes. “Things have gone to complete shit,” he admits instead. “I can't even – I don't even know where to start.”

  
  


“Seriously? Come on, Mike, I worked for Miranda Priestly the year she masterminded the coup that got the CEO of the publishing company booted _and_ I was the long-term replacement for the assistant I'm told was both the best and worst Miranda ever had, I am pretty sure I can understand any kind of office politics mess as long as you leave out the legalese.”

  
  


Mike laughs. “OK, how about this? Our firm's old boss came back after being booted by his then-second, who had help from the guy I work for directly. Now, old boss is angling to get his power back. Meanwhile, my boss has this guy who has a ridiculous hate crush on him furious he lost when he came at Harvey directly, so now he's back, having found the one case where things got really fucked up. And said fuckery got Donna fired. All this makes our managing partner, Jessica, look bad since Harvey's her most trusted guy, which gives old boss Hardman even more of an edge than he already had because he can play all amiable guy repentant for the old mistakes that got him booted.”

  
  


Elena blinks, processing that. “Wait, why can't Jessica and Harvey play nice?”

  
  


“Because they probably don't know how?” Mike says, voice very, very dry. “Seriously. I like Harvey a lot, I respect him.” _And I used to trust him, though now he's making me more nervous every day._ “But he comes off as an arrogant son of a bitch, which is partly true, and Jessica tends to be high-handed and a hardass. Which I'd say she's had to be, she's a black woman on top of one of this city's major corporate law firms. But it doesn't exactly leave you much opening to be the nice one in the room.”

  
  


“OK, but why are you, personally, so upset?”

  
  


“Well, first of all, I could probably have kept Donna from getting fired if I hadn't felt like it wasn't my place to intervene between her and Harvey. I mean, I don't think I was _wrong_ to think that, exactly, but I could have done more and I didn't. And now Harvey... He likes to win. He likes to win so much he almost can't face losing, but things... I can't discuss it in too much detail, you know that. But he's taking stupid risks now, way out of proportion to the situation. This case the guy with the hate crush, Tanner, brought out, and how it's going? Harvey's going more and more into loose cannon mode, and it's starting to scare me. This whole _thing_ is starting to scare me, El. I didn't sign up for this shit.”

  
  


“You know, Elias-Clarke could always use new blood in their Legal department. Although Miranda personally is a client of your firm, or at least was as of four months ago when I left.”

  
  


“Are you seriously telling me I should transfer to your old job's company?”

  
  


“Well, most of the politics had nothing to do with the in-house lawyers, and you'd still be away from the crime scenes.”

  
  


Mike shakes his head. Actually, there's something tempting in the idea, he can't deny it. This really is all getting to be more than he'd bargained for – had he wanted to play politics, he would have been working to reach the seventh floor back with the DA. But at the same time, can he leave now? Can he walk out on Harvey right now? Because at the end of the day that's what it comes down to, and the answer...

  
  


He can't, can he? Thinking too hard about why is like thinking too hard before calling Donna the couple times he's tried – he got no answer, and Rachel said the same thing happened to her and apparently Louis – and so he won't. It's just a shitty thing to do, that's all. And hopefully, if they can just get through this, things will die down again. But damn, he never thought he'd miss the days at Pearson Hardman when his biggest concern was that Louis would try to sabotage him again. “I can't leave yet, El,” he says, not even trying to put words to it all. “It's gotta calm down if we get through this, and if we don't, well...”

  
  


Mike's not an idiot. While he knows he can't be entirely certain why Hardman took the time to threaten him – unless he thought Mike would run to Harvey, which is just insulting – he's pretty sure he's figured it out. If Hardman gets his job back, Mike, the person who should never have been hired, is out. Louis will be pleased, at any rate. Hardman might not even need to fire him; Mike's a personal associate, and if Harvey loses this thing he almost certainly loses not just his job but his law license. It's unlikely Jessica keeps Mike around under the circumstances without Harvey – and truth is, if Harvey loses then it probably still ends up with Hardman toppling her too anyway. On the bright side, he can probably spin either of those when asked during his next job interview, because they have nothing to do with job performance.

  
  


It isn't lost on Mike that that's a pretty cynical bright side, but it's something, at least.

  
  


“Well, if you end up looking for a new job anyway, I'm dressing you for the interviews,” Elena says with a slight smile, nudging Mike's foot playfully. “Because you're improving but my God, do you still have a long way to go.”

  
  


Mike laughs, rolling his eyes. “Well, maybe I should just become your full-time model.”

  
  


“Hey, you're pretty enough, but nice as your legs are, they really wouldn't work in a skirt.”

  
  


“The sad part is that we actually know that for a fact.”

  
  


“I told you not to take that dare in freshman year, but you didn't listen to me. Still kicking myself for not having a camera that day.” Elena finishes her coffee and sets the mug aside. “I think you need to get out for a while. I have this party tonight, you want to come?”

  
  


“I'm a terrible wingman, the ladies usually think I'm hitting on them,” Mike points out.

  
  


“So do the guys. Luckily I'm not interested in them. Also, I don't need a wingman tonight, so no worries. I've already taken care of that.” She grins, which is when Mike remembers that Elena's been talking about a model a lot lately – a very specific model, when usually she rambles about all the models she hopes will be wearing her designs. She hasn't named any names, which is Elena's way of not jinxing things, but hey, at least one of them is beginning to have something resembling a love life.

  
  


Mike, on the other hand, can barely even conceive of having any kind of life, so he decides he _is_ going to go to this party. Maybe it'll do him good to be swimming in a different shark pool for once. Fashion is just as vicious as corporate law, and that probably applies at weekend parties too, but they won't care about him so it could be downright refreshing. “Does this mean you're also going to make me your Ken doll?” he asks, trying not to sound long-suffering.

  
  


“Only a little,” Elena says with a wink.

 

* * *

 

  
  


It's not so bad, really. Skinny jeans and a dark blue buttondown, and Elena managed to not force him into jeans that are entirely uncomfortable. The worst thing Mike can say, looking around at the loft full of people, is that the drinks are really weird. Neon colored cocktails that taste terrible, mostly, and of course fancy craft beers. But fancy craft beers are still beers, so Mike goes for one of those. Much safer than that purple thing Elena had the last he saw her.

  
  


He hopes she and the model – whose name is Gabriela, they've been introduced now – don't end up wearing it. Neither of them are in black, so it'll _definitely_ show.

  
  


Mike smiles to himself at the thought, even as he settles back against the wall for people-watching. He should probably try to be more social after deciding to come to this thing, but weirdly enough the observer role is enough for him tonight. It's enough to be out of his life for a while, getting a glimpse at the glitzy part of Elena's. Most of the people here are young professionals in the fashion world, a few in non-fashion related publishing, from what El said. There probably isn't a single lawyer here aside from Mike, and tonight, that's strangely helpful.

  
  


“Holding up the wall there?”

  
  


Mike glances over at the speaker. He's of a similar build to Mike, lean and slightly taller, with floppy black hair that falls into dark eyes. Like Mike, the newcomer is dressed in a buttondown – red, in his case – and jeans, though his aren't skinny jeans. “Well, someone's got to do it,” he says mildly.

  
  


“Guess so. I'm Chris Parker. You... Are you new in town? I've never seen you at any of these things before, though I don't go to a ton of them so that could be why.” Chris Parker offers a hand, and Mike shakes it. The other guy has a good grip, but Mike notices a few small inkstains on his fingers. Which, given how many times he ends up with ink or highlighter on his hands, isn't something he can really judge on.

  
  


“No, I'm a native actually. But you're right, I've never been to one of these before. I'm here with Elena James, we're old friends. Of course, she kinda ditched me for a better prospect, but I can't deny Gabriela Martin is much prettier than me.”

  
  


“Oh, I don't know, that could be a matter of taste,” Chris Parker says with a slow smile. “So, not in fashion or journalism then?”

  
  


“No,” Mike says carefully, suddenly aware that he's being flirted with. In spite of everyone thinking he flirts with them – the incident when he met Rachel springs to mind – Mike's actually not good at flirting. Teasing when he's already with someone, sure, but that's a different skill set. “I'm a corporate lawyer, actually. How about you? Fashion or journalism?”

  
  


“Oh, definitely not fashion by choice, it all confuses the hell out of me. Freelance journalist here, and I'm a copy editor at _Runway_ in the meanwhile. See, you don't need to understand what the hell someone's going on about to know if they're doing it with proper grammar and punctuation, and with the best phrasing. So that's how I survive. I'm currently resisting learning more by sheer osmosis, though.”

  
  


Mike has to laugh. “Tell me about it. I'm resisting becoming a snob the same way. Or a heartless shark, don't know which would be worse.”

  
  


He's surprised when he only feels a little guilty about that, and when he's easily distracted away from that vague feeling by Chris Parker telling him about a freelance job that took him out to Arizona last year. When Elena teases him after the party about how he was swapping stories with Chris all night, all Mike can do is shrug.

  
  


What's wrong with a little uncomplicated fun?

 

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, that was Bianca and Anya from my Air Force AU; I love them too much, Mike has them as friends here too. But they're a bit different.


End file.
